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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Japanese Hot Pot is a unique change of pace; the dining experience truly feels entirely different when you are cooking your own meal!

The newly opened ShabuMaru is a chic and elegant space located in the Westin Copley Place Hotel, offering traditional shabu-shabustyle cuisine. Here, shiny white subway tiles and leafy-green live wall installations surround copper bot laden heavy wood tables and a three sided bar facing an open kitchen.

Choose a chicken or a vegetable based broth and the servers will take care to cater to your boiling soups water temperature so it is just right for cooking your razor-thin meats, like certified Miyazaki Waygu beef or Korobuta pork belly, and sushi-grade salmon, tuna, and yellowtail. These are complimented by a choice of rice or noodles, a mini tin bucket of fresh vegetables, plus signature condiments - a ponzu citrus-based soy sauce and a creamy sesame sauce. A selection of table-side condiments also awaits: garlic paste, scallions, daikon puree and chili oil will ensure a full and spicy flavor profile. Hotpot is all about designing taste sensations to suit your own palette. Everything was tasty, the one personal exception is that I preferred to eat the sushi grade fish raw - still it pairs wonderfully with the hot soups and a cold sake or a Sapporo.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Prior to this delectable seafood meal at Legal Harborside, I had never heard of Skrei (pronounced "skray"). Skrei is ultra-premium specialty Norwegian Cod fish, cherished in culinary circles and among renowned chefs for its beautiful white meat, delicate flake, and extraordinary flavor. Skrei is sustainably fished and only available for a few months each year. In pursuit of this sought-after catch, Norwegian fishermen brave ferocious seas on the darkest and coldest January nights, when the cod are migrating south from their feeding grounds in the Barents Sea towards the coast of Norway.

Hosting us in their luxe second floor dining room, Legal Harborside started the meal with a delicate bread platter, cotuit and rhode island oysters, and jumbo shrimp cocktail served in an ice-egg! For the main event, the Skrei was pan roasted and brilliantly showcased alongside bacon lardon, leeks and golden russet apples, fused by a smoked mussel chowder which was poured tableside. As a result of crossing through the cold, clear arctic waters - the cod fish is elegant and silky with firm flakes and an exceptionally clean taste.

A sweet ending to the meal was a brûléed chocolate banana tart with coconut gelato, chocolate sauce and toasted coconut anglaise. We also enjoyed a whimsical citrus flight with lemon sponge pudding, avocado key lime tart, a grapefruit gateau and blood orange sorbet.

It's always nice to come away from a tasting having learned a little something new. This was a dinner that felt personal and not overly hyped, accompanied by a terrific menu, flawless service, and a folder of well designed information waiting at the table.